RCQE realized several qualitative achievements during the year 2017 including research projects, symposiums, and regional and international partnerships. All of these activities and achievements were intended to realize RCQE and UNESCO strategic goals.
RCQE is an initiative of the Government of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Education Ministry, to effectively contribute to the education reform process on the regional and international levels. In addition, it is the first center in the world under the auspices of UNESCO that specializes in education quality and excellence.
H.E Dr. Husam Zaman, RCQE director general, stated that RCQE achieved the strategic goals of 2017 projects in record time and the outcomes and recommendations were submitted to the concerned policy makers in the Arab world. He also attributed these achievements to the wise directives of H.E Dr. Ahmed Al-Essa, RCQE chairperson and the Saudi Minister of Education.
Dr. Zaman presented in this report several achievements of RCQE as follows:
Projects:
RCQE achieved through this year several research projects on the Arab region level, including:
- A study on the status of teacher education programs to identify the status of teacher education programs in the Arab world and conduct some regional and international comparisons. The study provided a set of recommendations topped by the necessity of obtaining the national and international accreditation to improve and upgrade these programs, updating the curricula in teacher education institutions, and working on applying teaching licensing policy.
- A study on Excellence Awards to explore the status of education excellence awards in the Arab world. The study proposed a set of recommendations topped by the necessity of establishing expertise sharing mechanisms between the concerned persons in the Arab world, and organizing meeting and symposiums attended by officials concerned with such prizes to discuss development opportunities and challenges.
- A study on education quality indicators to provide a clear vision about the status of education quality and clarifying the main expected outcomes. The study concluded several recommendations such as improving and upgrading the education structure through integrating the early childhood as an obligatory stage and establishing an accountability and quality control systems in education systems.
- Translation for the Quality project which aimed at enriching the Arabic content through translating – from English to Arabic – various books in the educational quality and environment field. These books included: “The Moral University”, “Quality Educators: An International Study of Teacher Competencies and Standards”, and “Smaller, Quicker, Cheaper … Improving Learning Assessments for Developing Countries”.
Core activities (Resources)
RCQE proceeded to depend on its own services to generate revenue and financing for diversifying its financial resources. This year generated own resources equals 17.5% of its own budget.
International Days
RCQE interacted effectively with the international days through organizing symposiums and publishing short awareness videos. In Teachers’ World Day, RCQE launched a video for awareness outreach titled “Quality Education … An interesting journey led by an inspiring teacher”. The message of the video was to stimulate teacher for creativity in classrooms and highlight the exceptional role of the inspiring teacher in the learning process. In addition, in the World Children’s Day, RCQE organized a symposium on “Education & Children”. The purpose of the symposium was to raise the awareness about child rights to education, especially in crisis and war times and to highlight the governmental and non-governmental efforts to raise enrollment rates in kindergartens. The symposium provided several recommendations including developing education programs to satisfy the needs of child refugees, disseminating tolerance culture and fighting hate speech, and providing jobs for parents to prevent child labor.
Training program project
RCQE launched a training program project on “Educational indicators” targeting officials of ministries of education in the Arab world. The first stage of the program started in Saudi Arabia through organizing training sessions for three days attended by around 30 officials of the Saudi Ministry of education. the program aims at enhancing the capacity of participants to define, analyze, interpret, and utilize education indicators in planning, monitoring, and evaluation. It will be organized in 7 Arab countries during this year.
Events
RCQE cooperates with partners to achieve some strategic goals of UNESCO. Within this context, RCQE in cooperation with UNESCO Beirut office, and Islamic Development Bank organized a symposium in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss the UNESCO publication “Rethinking education: towards a common global good”. Moreover, RCQE organized a symposium on integrating global citizenship concepts in k-12 curricula in the Arab world.
Contributions & Agreements
During the year, RCQE undertook four national, eight regionals, and four international contributions. On the international level, RCQE, for instance, contributed to Global Education Monitoring Report in Washington, and Teacher Task Force in France. Moreover, RCQE concluded several national, regional, and international agreements and partnerships.
The Board of Directors
RCQE Board of Directors, held at the end of November, approved several projects and symposiums, including: a project on in-service training programs and policies, a project on the integration of global citizenship concept into k-12 curricula, a developmental review on 7-12 teacher education programs, a project on private sector role in achieving education quality in the Arab world, a project on teacher policies in education systems, and a project on improving the quality of teacher education programs.
Finally, RCQE Director-General praised the support of the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Crown Prince, for hosting the Center and providing the required operational budget. He added that such support reflects the leadership role of Saudi Arabia in the process of improving the quality of education in the Arab world. Dr. Zaman stressed as well that RCQE receives continuous support and wise directives from H.E Dr. Ahmed Al-Essa to achieve the aspired education quality in the Arab world.
